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Following the destruction of Romulus by a supernova in 2387, Nero took the Narada to intercept AmbassadorSpock, who was attempting to create an artificial black hole which would consume the star before it destroyed more worlds. Both the Narada and Spock's ship, the Jellyfish, went missing after they were pulled into the black hole.

Interior of the Narada

The Narada emerged from the black hole, 75,000 kilometers from the edge of Klingon space, in the year 2233, creating the alternate reality. There, the Narada encountered and attacked the USS Kelvin, easily overpowering the Federationstarship. During the attack the Kelvin's commanding officer, CaptainRichard Robau, was killed. LieutenantGeorge Kirk took command. With his ship heavily damaged and facing imminent annihilation by the Narada, Kirk gave the order to abandon ship. To save the lives of those evacuating in shuttles, Kirk rammed the Kelvin into the Narada. Although the Narada sustained enough damage to ensure the safety of the Kelvin evacuees, the Narada was still operational.

The scans the Kelvin took of the Narada's 24th century technology, that went with the survivors on the shuttles, were used by 23rd century Starfleet to reverse engineer the more "advanced" technology seen in the alternate reality, according to a post by Star Trek screenwriter Roberto Orci on Ain't It Cool News. [1] Director J.J. Abrams also said in an interview with MTV that readings from the Narada "inspired ideas and technology that wouldn't have advanced otherwise." [2]

A deleted scene from the film establishes that the Narada was crippled after it was rammed by the Kelvin. A convoy of Klingon warbirds eventually arrived and captured the ship and its crew. Twenty five years later, Nero and his crew escaped from their imprisonment on Rura Penthe, the Klingon prison planet, reclaimed the Narada, which was kept in orbit, and continued on their mission. [3]

The Narada warps after the Jellyfish

Twenty five years later, the Narada was involved in an attack on a Klingon prison planet and the destruction of 47Klingon warbirds. Shortly thereafter, the Jellyfish, with Spock aboard, emerged from the black hole and was immediately captured by the Narada. The Narada then left for Vulcan and drilled a hole into the planet, all the way to its core. When the Federation sent a small fleet to Vulcan to investigate the seismic disturbance, the Narada destroyed them shortly before the USS Enterprise arrived. The crew of the Enterprise successfully stopped the drill, but were unable to stop Nero from injecting red matter, taken from the Jellyfish, into the core of the planet, creating a black hole which quickly consumed Vulcan.

The Narada is consumed by a black hole

Following Vulcan's destruction, Nero interrogated the captured Pike using Centaurian slugs, forcing the helpless captain to reveal Earth's planetary defense codes. Nero took the Narada to Earth and began drilling into that planet. However, the drilling rig was destroyed by that era's Spock using the Jellyfish, which he confiscated from the Narada. After drawing the Narada away from Earth, Spock rammed the Jellyfish into the Narada. The remaining red matter that was aboard the Jellyfish was ignited, creating a massive black hole which slowly began to crush the ship. Kirk offered to assist the crew of the Narada, but Nero refused. Kirk then had the Enterprise fire upon the Narada to ensure its destruction until the ship was pulled apart and ultimately devoured by the black hole. (Star Trek)

According to writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, Kirk orders the Enterprise to fire on the Narada as it is being pulled into the black hole at the end of the film to prevent the ship from possibly emerging elsewhere and causing more chaos and destruction. [4]

Despite being only a mining vessel in its own time, the Narada possessed weaponry far more advanced than that of any ships it encountered in the 23rd century. The primary weapons seemed to be highly destructive missiles, each of which could break into several component projectiles. These projectiles were powerful enough to penetrate the standard shielding which starships of the time utilized. The Narada housed at least enough of these weapons to easily destroy entire fleets of ships; more than fifty vessels were destroyed over twenty-five years.

As a mining vessel, the Narada also had an immense drilling apparatus, which was a platform at the end of a lengthy boom seemingly hundreds of kilometers long. The drill emitted a powerful beam that could penetrate a planet's surface and continue all the way to its core. The high energy output from the beam itself also acted as a disruptor of sorts, causing localized interference in communications and transporter signals.

With the Jellyfish in its possession, the Narada could also deploy bombs loaded with incredibly destructive red matter.

The Narada was designed by James Clyne. Production designer Scott Chambliss wanted the ship to be assymetrical, in contrast to the "perfect symmetry" of the Enterprise. Chambliss contemplated "the scariest thing in space" and looked to a kitchen knife, imagining "500 gigantic knife-edge points". "That's how the Romulan ship developed, with a kitchen knife and the twisted imagination of James Clyne," he said. During development, the ship was referred to as "Hanson's Ranch" to keep its name secret. (Star Trek - The Art of the Film)

J.J. Abrams wanted the ship's interiors to feel mysterious by having them be "amorphous, to have a sense of no corners, ceilings or floors". To minimize the size of the set, Chambliss called on his experience in theater to build a set where parts could be moved around to create another section of the ship each day. Cinematographer Dan Mindel used "abrasive" yellow-green lighting to suggest the angry and fragmented mindset of the Romulan crew. Visual effects supervisor Roger Guyett complemented the feel by underlighting the digital shots "in classic horror movie style", based on a lighting test "that went wrong, but I actually liked the look" of.

ILM model supervisor Bruce Holcomb stated the Narada was six miles (ten kilometers) long, [5] while Post Magazine mentions it is five miles (eight kilometers) long. [6] The film's Blu-ray gives a final estimate of the ship's length at 30,737.3 feet (9,368.7 meters). Regardless, the ship was one of the largest digital models ever built by the company: according to Roger Guyett, the detail required near 1:1 scale.

In the Star Trek prequel comic book miniseries Star Trek: Countdown, the Narada's advanced weaponry and appearance are explained as being the result of the ship being retrofitted with salvaged and reverse-engineered Borg technology. The Tal Shiar in the 24th century had been experimenting with Borg technology, and Nero's ship was the experimental vessel used. The Narada was retrofitted at The Vault (β), a cloaked military installation in deep space, subsequent to the destruction of Romulus. The Borg nanoprobes allowed the ship to grow and repair itself, and also take on a much larger and more menacing appearance. The ship's speed was increased from Warp 9.8 to "...immeasurable transwarp speeds." This information also appeared on the Blu-ray release of the film in the supplement section "Starships."

In an issue of the ongoing Star Trek comic set in the alternate reality's mirror universe, Kirk - Spock's first officer - commandeers the Narada from Nero following the Terran Empire's conquest of the Klingon Empire. He attacks and destroys the Enterprise, and sets course for Vulcan.